Dreamcast 20th UK anniversary (14/10/1999) - Discuss your LAUNCH memories

NickSCFC · PostDreamcast 20th UK anniversary (14/10/1999) - Discuss your LAUNCH memories

I know I'm jumping the gun here and the anniversary of the actual console launch is still a few months away. However summer 1999 is when my memories of the build up to launch begin (remember the demo pods springing up in Odeon cinemas around the time of the Phantom Menace launch).

I'd like this thread to focus more on the LAUNCH of the console rather than later stuff like Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia. There's another thread for stuff like that...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92&hilit=dreamcast

My random memories...

Waiting for the Odeon to open for the Phantom Menace and noticing the demo pods by the stairs (was more excited about playing the games than the movie by that point). The smell of popcorn still brings that back for me.

Sitting on a bench outside GAME with a friend watching the SoulCalibur into play on loop for about 10 minutes and just being blown away

Spotting the Official Magazine a month before launch and thinking everything about it was cool (it was more of a lads mag, on reflection the Official Saturn Magazine) was far superior.

Having nothing to play for the first month but the DreamOn demo that accompanied the console due to having no money for actual games, there was something addictive about Ready2Rumble

...and the VHS...

BBC coverage

Launch night

I remember being utterly blown away by Sonic Adventure. The cut scenes, the gameplay, it was like nothing I'd ever played before. I just completely and utterly fell in love and even going back now seeing all its flaws, I still love Sonic Adventure because the initial impact on me was just so strong.

NickSCFC

Lagamorph wrote:I remember being utterly blown away by Sonic Adventure. The cut scenes, the gameplay, it was like nothing I'd ever played before. I just completely and utterly fell in love and even going back now seeing all its flaws, I still love Sonic Adventure because the initial impact on me was just so strong.

That was one of the demos that had in Odeon in the summer, Sonic Adventure complete blew me away and despite the flaws I still get really nostalgic about it.

Lagamorph wrote:I remember being utterly blown away by Sonic Adventure. The cut scenes, the gameplay, it was like nothing I'd ever played before. I just completely and utterly fell in love and even going back now seeing all its flaws, I still love Sonic Adventure because the initial impact on me was just so strong.

Yup. I actually gathered up all my friends (ha, remember those?) and demoed the intro to Sonic Adventure which had blown me the strawberry float away. The orca level, the pinball machines, the 'open world' of the hubs... I can't remember the last time a game made such an impression. The hub music still makes me go all warm inside.

Oh strawberry float, and this one too from one of the final levels:

One of my favourite memories of that time in my life was doing maths coursework with a mate, taking turns on the NiGHTs pinball machine in Sonic Adventure. Once one of us died, that person would take over the work whilst the other played. It was amazing.

Also, I got up to 75th best in the world on one of the E102 time trial missions

NickSCFC

Anyone remember total control magazine?

I remember we'd been playing FIFA 99 and ISS Pro 98 a lot during that summer and I was showing off screenshots of UEFA striker which had crowds with individual spectators (cardboard cutouts by today's standards) and it looked incredible. The game launched with a glitch meaning that all the kits were mirrored :lol:

I'd just started a job up in Notting Hill, London. Nearby was a Blockbusters (I think it was Blockbusters). I remember going in there one lunchtime and purchasing a launch Dreamcast. I purchased an official Sega Dreamcast keyboard at the same time. Never used the keyboard. I really enjoyed the Dreamcast, but the love-affair was never going to last, given the competition.

NickSCFC

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/s ... 1010/7501/

Some of the top 10 songs in the charts during launch (always reminded of launch when I hear these on the radio, guess they were played in the shops at the time)

Remember hating them all at the time, but I get warm fuzzy memories when I hear them now

Great times, gooseberry fool music

The big thing for me was understanding how different the Dreamcast was trying to be compared to everything else.

It was unbelievable that it had a proper web browser and could connect to the internet.

It blew my mind that it had a mini Game Boy as a memory card, especially the Tamagotchi-like mini game that linked to Sonic Adventure.

It ran some crazy version of Windows! On a console!

I read about the Dreamcast a lot before launch. It was like this great endless possibility machine that wasn't just "this is like our last console but with FIVE TIMES the power" or whatever. It was exciting, and I was excited for it.

But I was a total Nintendo fanboy. A lot of the headline games were kind of chunky and arcade-ish and didn't appeal so much, and Sonic Adventure looked kind of rubbish. I didn't buy one until it was heavily, heavily discounted in Currys once the platform was abandoned, though I loved MSR and Space Channel 5.

I wish I had a lot more memories of it than I do. I remember the Ready 2 Rumble Boxing demo pods, in particular in Comet, which I had a brief go on. I was probably more excited at that point by the digital recreation of Michael Buffer. The PlayStation-esque square cases but in blue were also quite visible on shop shelving.

I guess unfortunately what stands out to me is ironically what doesn't: not one solitary person at school had a Dreamcast, and I can't even recall one conversation about it. Of all the things at around that time I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Pokemon Blue, Red and Yellow phenomenon that also hurt SEGA during the first year. It may have even launched in the same month. Dreamcast never seemed to gain a foothold, certainly with me, because there was always something else happening elsewhere.

Picked one up on launch day with Sonic and Sega Rally. I remember being completely underwhelmed with Sega Rally, but Sonic Adventure was great. Ended up loving the console but those first few months were a bit gooseberry fool. Agree with the earlier post about demo discs, that just about kept me going.

I will say this looking back - great selection of magazines to choose from, with Future, Paragon and Dennis all delivering the goods.

This was perhaps my third most anticipated console release and, although I was initially disappointed by the launch titles, the rapidly expanding library left everything else in its dust. For example, Resident Evil Code: Veronica was overwhelmingly amazing for the time, plus Soul Caliber, Echo, MvC2...

By the end of its life I had to turn the damned thing upside-down to get the disks to load, but that just suggests how much use I got out of it, lasting well after PS2 launched. I only really put it away once I got my hands on GameCube.

NickSCFC

more heat than light wrote:Picked one up on launch day with Sonic and Sega Rally. I remember being completely underwhelmed with Sega Rally, but Sonic Adventure was great. Ended up loving the console but those first few months were a bit gooseberry fool. Agree with the earlier post about demo discs, that just about kept me going.

I remember our Odeon (which had those early demo pods) was right next to a bowling alley with the Sega Rally 2 arcade machine.

We used to go back and forth and compare them, the arcade version just felt more 3D and had better textures. Still enjoyed it though...

I recall seeing a Dreamcast demo pod playing Ready 2 Rumble in my local Blockbuster and I was really impressed by how sharp and bright the console's graphics were. It was great to see 3D graphics presented so smoothly and vividly.

As Sega sponsored Arsenal at this time, I got to see DC demo pods pretty frequently and I really wanted to get the console but it had launched at a time when cash was pretty tight. I stuck with my PlayStation and played that until I got an Xbox in 2003. I always kinda wish I'd jumped aboard the DC train, though; later titles like Crazy Taxi, Metropolis Street Racer and Virtua Tennis just looked great!

I remember launch day, I was so excited.

I'd preordered from Woolworths, I remember getting up and getting the bus to town to get there just after they opened. I remember popping the old loo's in the market place of town and getting a mouth full of cobwebs that were covering the doorway then walking down and picking up the console.

I particularly remember it as when i got to the counter and told the lady I was there to pick up my preorder and gave her the receipt, she gave me a very weird/concerned look. I was expecting her to say they'd got no stock or something but she wandered off to get my console.

Whilst she was gone, I looked down and realised a massive spider was sat on my t shirt near my left shoulder. Now, I am terrified of spiders so I swatted it away trying my best not to do a loud girly scream. It landed on the counter and scuttled off somewhere. The lady came back and gave me my console, I think she'd clocked the spider was gone and looked a bit nervous but neither she or I mentioned it so she was either terrified too or thought I was some weirdo who walked around shops with his pet spider.

I got home, managed to play some demos that came with it - I remember an F1 game.. then had to go get the bus to uni.

When I got to town, I remember going in GAME and grabbing VMU's, second controller.. I think a Scart lead and Sonic Adventure and Sega Rally 2.

That was the longest day at uni ever... when I finally got home, I played Sonic solidly for hours.

I don't think I'd ever been so excited for a console launch before (or since). The Dreamcast is still my all time favourite console, so many fun memories despite it's sadly short lifespan.

Got it early in the morning with sonic adventure and a vmu.

I was quite amazed and feel lucky to have experienced shenmue at launch along with shenmue 2 near the end of its cycle.

I got got a ps2 in the end, but the dreamcast gave me some of my fondest gaming memories.

It was also the first console i started buying imported games for from none other than computer exchange! I remember paying over the odds for f355 challenge and virtua tennis and feeling smug to have got it before release in the uk.

Another memory was buying msr from hmv and i got a free watch.

I had Sega Rally 2 at launch and Virtua Fighting.

I loved them but the 2 games that stand out to me are Quake 3 Arena with keyboard and mouse and Phantasy Star Online. How those games functioned with such low speeds was amazing.

I think toy racer was my first experience online or maybe it was chu chu rocket. I think both were free? Great times they were and its a shame sega couldn’t fight on.

I was at college at the time and didn't bother going in on launch day.

I got Sega Rally 2 and Virtua Fighter 3tb with mine, both of which were slightly disappointing if I'm being completely honest but I still played both for several weeks, think I bought Sonic Adventure and Ready 2 Rumble next and loved both of them.

Fondest memories of the console however didn't come until Soul Calibur, Shenmue, Power Stone and MSR, all of which I played to death and loved every minute of them.

Ironhide wrote:I was at college at the time and didn't bother going in on launch day.

I got Sega Rally 2 and Virtua Fighter 3tb with mine, both of which were slightly disappointing if I'm being completely honest but I still played both for several weeks, think I bought Sonic Adventure and Ready 2 Rumble next and loved both of them.

Fondest memories of the console however didn't come until Soul Calibur, Shenmue, Power Stone and MSR, all of which I played to death and loved every minute of them.

So good

Dreamcast 20th UK anniversary (14/10/1999) - Discuss your LAUNCH memories

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